Hijacking Scare On Qatar Airways Jet

A fight between a passenger and flight attendants on a Qatar Airways plane sparked a hijacking scare Thursday, prompting the plane to return to Amman on a day of increased tensions on flights after a foiled terror plot in Britain.

The passenger, an Eritrean man, screamed and pushed an attendant after being told he could not leave his seat to use the bathroom, a Jordanian government spokesman said.

The incident came hours after Great Britain announced it had foiled a major terror plot to blow up airplanes headed to the United States from London's Heathrow Airport. The plotters planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and set them off with detonators disguised as electronic devices, according to U.S. officials.

Initial reports from Jordanian airport security officials said the Eritrean was carrying a canister with a liquid in it as he tried to force his way into the cockpit.

But government spokesman Nasser Judeh told The Associated Press that it "was a quarrel and not a hijacking attempt" and that the liquid was a medicine.

The man tried to go to the bathroom 10 minutes after the flight took off, heading from Amman to the Qatari capital, Doha.

When the attendants told him he could not leave his seat yet, he pushed an attendant to the ground before others restrained him, Judeh said. The pilot returned the plane to Amman, where the man was detained.

In questioning, the man told security officials he was furious over what he called "brutal treatment" by the flight attendants and had demanded to talk to the pilot to complain. When he tried to head toward the cabin, it sparked fears of a hijacking attempt, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

The officials confirmed that the liquid the man was carrying was medicine.

When the plane returned to Amman, it was parked on a runway far from the terminal with the passengers still on board as security officials considered whether to search it for accomplices — until the details of the quarrel became clear.

A statement issued by Qatar Airways said that an Eritrean man had tried "to force his way into the cockpit of the Airbus," which was carrying 12 crew members and 267 passengers. "No one was hurt in the incident," the company said.

The company resumed its flight to Qatar later Thursday with all passengers onboard except for the Eritrean man, who was still in custody, a Qatar Airways official in Jordan said.

Jordanian officials stepped up security measures on flights to London on Thursday, barring passengers from taking carry-on luggage on a request from British officials. But no such measures were taken on other flights.